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View Full Version : S13 Electronics NOT WORKING - Headlights, room lamp, meter, seatbelts, radio


tacobellman_2007
07-18-2014, 04:37 PM
EDIT: Room lamp, trunk lamp, seat belts, gauges, radio, A/C + heater still don't work, but MY HEADLIGHTS NOW WORK, they were simply bad bulbs lol. I didn't think those things would go bad but after what happened it kinda makes sense.


SHORT STORY:

Things that don't work: Headlights, room lamp, seat belts, radio, tachometer needle, speedometer needle, temperature needle, gas tank needle, clock, a/c + heater.

My pop up headlights do not turn ON. They are popped up, but are not able to go down and the lights will not work. ALL the other exterior lights work. It is just the headlights do not turn on. I checked the LH and RH 15 amp fuses, as well as all 4 headlight relays, and they are all good.

My radio will NOT turn on. Checked the 10 amp fuse and it is not blown.

In addition, my meters do not work (tachometer, speedometer, temperature, gas level). Every time I replace the 10 amp Meter fuse, it blows.

Lastly, my room lap does not work, and when I replace the 10 amp Room Lamp fuse, it blows.

I have checked all my wires on both sides underneath the fenders for shorts and have taped up each exposed wire, INDIVIDUALLY. I have checked the fuses, and of everything that I have mentioned that is not working, only the 10 amp METER and 10 amp ROOM LAMP fuses keep blowing. Every other fuse is fine. I am currently looking for bad grounds, but so far, the ones I've checked have tested fine.

I used this thread:

http://forums.nicoclub.com/how-to-fix-your-headlight-problems-t280461.html

to take apart the headlight switch by the steering wheel, CLEANED each of the four contact points, put it back together, and have had no luck.

I checked the little white box (Time Control Unit) near the driver's side fuse panel and it did not appear to be fried. Everything look the way it should.

What am I missing???? Bad grounds?

P.S. I just replaced the alternator with a NEW one, and my battery is in good working condition.





LONG STORY:

A couple of weeks ago, I did a battery relocation. I pretty much did everything right, except for the fact that I used 4 gauge wire instead of using 2 or 0 gauge. The only thing I noticed that was out of the ordinary for my car was that it was slow to crank up, but it eventually always cranked and started. No other problems occurred.

So last week, me and my buddies had a little fun and went to a couple drift spots late at night. After we were heading home, my HEADLIGHTS stopped working. The pop ups were up, but the lights were off. And my radio started acting up (turning on and off randomly). Every other exterior light and electronics were working fine.

Then, we stopped at a gas station to try and diagnose the problem. Saw some wires exposed under my passenger side fender and individually taped each one up. Then, we took off.

After a minute of driving, ALL my electronic components shut off!! No horn, lights, power windows, nothing! At night lmao!! I was following my friend and luckily I was able to speed up and get next to him to tell him my car's electronics were not working at all. So, we stopped again. Then we saw that my battery in the back was leaking acid :eek3: it was in a battery box that was tied down, but the battery itself was not tied down inside the box. The battery was almost a perfect fit for the box, but unfortunately, it was a little loose.

SO, my friend had a spare battery and gave it to me to use. I was able to start and drive my car, but again, no electronics worked.

A few days pass, and I finally buy 0 gauge wire for my car. I install that, and my car starts up as good as it would fresh off the lot. Then I learn that my alternator is bad (internal regulator got f***ed). So, I replace the alternator with a new one. I also check my fuses and see that my Room Lamp, Meter, and Tail Lamp fuses are fried. So I replace all three and only the Tail Lamp does not fry. The 10 amp Room Lamp and Meter fuses keep getting fried. Now I have power windows, my cluster LIGHTS turn on (but the needles do not move and the clock is not on), and all my exterior lights EXCEPT the headlights turn on. My blinkers turn ON, but they do NOT flash. Same with my hazards. They are simply frozen when I flick the switch/hit the button.

What should I do next guys??? I am completely lost. :wtf: All my fuses and relays are fine (except for the 10 amp Room Lamp and Meter fuses). I've checked under my fenders for any exposed wiring and have taped them up, individually. When checking for "bad grounds," I basically have to check continuity/resistance with a multimeter, correct?

Please help!!! It's my daily driver :w00t:

anti tyler
07-18-2014, 10:27 PM
Let me ask you this, being that the fuse is blowing, have you went over every single thing?

AKA, testing power from the input wire to the dome light to the output side of the dome light. etc?

I'm sure your wires could be good to go but something as far as the dome light could have a piece of metal sticking out and shorting the whole deal out...

tacobellman_2007
07-19-2014, 12:37 AM
Let me ask you this, being that the fuse is blowing, have you went over every single thing?

AKA, testing power from the input wire to the dome light to the output side of the dome light. etc?

I'm sure your wires could be good to go but something as far as the dome light could have a piece of metal sticking out and shorting the whole deal out...

No, I have not gone over every single thing, which I know I should. I did that testing you mentioned with the headlights, but not for anything else. I have working headlights now, but everything else I've mentioned is still out.

It's a little confusing for me, reading the wiring diagrams from the FSM, but hopefully after some time trying to understand it, I will figure out where the input wire, output side, etc. are exactly for the dome light in order to test things.

Everything under the fenders is fine, but I'll have to check other areas because I'm sure after sliding my car around like that, a couple of things have been displaced.

tacobellman_2007
07-23-2014, 11:12 PM
So today I worked and re-checked all - what was it, 63? - wires on the driver's side, and found 10 wires exposed. I checked voltage on each of them to see if they were getting power. FOUR of these wires didn't seem to get voltage, even with the key in the ON position. These wires were the Brown w/ White stripe (BR/W), Yellow w/ White stripe (Y/W), Orange w/ Blue stripe (OR/L), and Brown w/ Yellow stripe (BR/Y). Anyone know what these wires connect to?

Also, there was one wire (White w/ Red stripe [W/R]) that was only getting 0.99 volts with the key in the ON position, and then only 3.19 volts with the engine running. Any idea what wire that is?

I have access to an FSM, but 99% of these wires under both fenders have little Silver marks on them, about an inch spread apart. When looking for them in the FSM, am I supposed to ignore the Silver marking and just refer to them as if they didn't have a Silver mark? For example, I was able to see L/B (Blue with Black stripe) in the FSM, but on the actual car under the fender, it is a Blue with Black Stripe and Silver marks. If anyone could clear this up, that'd be great.